The Importance Of Good Government

Polarization in Congress is growing uncontrollably. Congress will not agree on anything because officials are so far on the political spectrum. The spectrum is a number line that shows how liberal or conservative someone is (negative is

Political parties provide the House of Representatives with organizational structure and discipline. Therefore, they appear to be essential for understanding the relationship between members and constituents. Meinke acknowledges prior literature concerning the influence of parties on representation and in policy-making choices as well as the evolution of extended leadership. However, Meinke suggests that in the representational relationship, parties have a wider scope of influence than previously believed.

Having a polarized or partisan Congress is ineffective in pushing for public policies, or a “broad strategy government uses to do its job...it is the relatively stable set of purposive governmental actions that address matters of concern to some part of society” since both sides are opposing one another (openstax, pg. 590). For example, a bill, or a “proposed

If we go back in time Congress was doing good job. According to the book “The Broken Branch How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track” By Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, earlys of 1820s, House and Senate were working together to process legislation. Most of 19th century, the Congress dominated policymaking maintain their privilege. I believe it in the late of 1950s the Congress was being controlled by independent people. By then there were not

In the world of politics, the powers of the Legislative branch are crucial in the system of checks and balances in our government. According to the U.S. Constitution, the Legislative branch or better known as Congress, is responsible for making laws. Though trusted with this power, Congress does not effectively execute this action due to their inability to work together and make decisions on bills. Due to this indecisiveness, Congress is constantly being slammed in the media and is beginning to be referred to as the immature branch of government. Their indecisiveness is also dissatisfying American citizens making many citizens hold them in contempt because of them not doing their job.

Senate has been slower to change, but several African Americans and Hispanics hold influential positions

The polarization of the political parties is a reflection of a country, not simply a government divided, but the country’s populous in growing further apart. Alan Abramowitz indicates the polarization of the Democrats and Republicans causes them to be on opposing sides on almost all issues and Washington reflects the growing division within Americans (714). Thus the major problem with Polarization and gridlock is not the simply the inability to pass the legislation when gridlock occurs but what it does to the morale of American citizens. D.J. Flynn and Laurel Harbridge completed two surveys in order to study how partisan congress affects public opinion. A result from the study indicated most people will accept legislation in favor of the opposing party than they will gridlock (885) and while more research is needed the result of their survey is gridlock does cause a decrease in the populist confidence in Congress (Flynn, Harbridge 890). It is clear something needs to be done to improve the mindset of the American people. One of the best ways to improve the mindset of the American populace is for them to become more educated. When the country was first established, people were not privy to every action the congress was taking as it happened, and therefore the quibbles within congress were not in the forefront of people’s minds. Even Melnick illuminated the fact that the populist is now bombarded with opinions about what is happing in Washington. He indicated when the constitutional convention took place the meeting was behind closed doors miles from constituents allowing them

When the word partisanship comes up, our minds can think of numerous things; in this case partisanship with the help of other reasons can explain the dysfunction of the government in the area of politics. To begin, one could ask how exactly does partisanship affect politics today. Jim Douglas does an excellent job of showing how partisanship is affecting our government and why it is important to stop it. He does this in his speech, "Beyond Partisanship." "Partisan rhetoric is abundant, while solutions are scarce. The result is a Washington [or political system] that is broken"(Douglas 104). Here, Douglas tells his audience that instead of looking for compromises or achieving results in politics partisanship is allowing

Presently in today 's congress, the job of congressman/woman is becoming very difficult. With the senate being controlled by democrats and the House of Representatives being controlled by Republican. The part of the Job to be a consensus builder is proved to be very long and difficult. Two very different political parties with very different political ideas. Agreeing on such ideas between the two can be long and tedious. Especially when drafting and creating laws. This disagreement between parties can be be interpreted by the public and especially the media as Congress being lazy and doing nothing.So what are they actually doing? Why does Congress seem to be doing nothing? The answer is not whether congress’s has good work ethic , because according to a recent article in USA Today a congressman works on average 70 hours a week while in Washington and a 59 hour week while back in their home districts.(Korte) The 112th congress, are now Congress

David Brady and Craig Volden’s The Revolving Gridlock discusses the ability of Congress members to prevent and even kill legislation, even if their party does not possess majority control. The authors note that it does not always take opposing political ideology in the Executive and Legislative branches to create an atmosphere of stagnation within government. Instead the conflicting views and sectarian nature of the House and Senate, create sub-parties that become the obstacles of bipartisan compromises, and, in doing so, progress, creating the concept of the “revolving gridlock.” The writers consider the concept to be a direct result of the necessity for majority vote to pass bills and two-thirds to override presidential vetoes. Yet, there

The United States congress is the most powerful group of politicians within the Governmental system under the United States Constitution. Congress is the glue that holds the United States together upholding its roles and responsibilities detailed in the Constitution on a daily basis. Which so much power Congress members are held in high regard for what they do, Congress’ main responsibly stems from making laws to declaring war. With all this power and responsibility you would assume that there would be no room for congress to make mistakes or even be dysfunctional. Due to high egos and self-centered politicians, congress has become very dysfunctional,and heavy-handed over the years. As well as the shortcuts Congress members have maneuvered

The United States Congress has been on a downward spiral in the past decade, in 2009 their approval rating was at 37% compared to a mere 13% as of this week. This begs the question of whether our electoral laws for Congress are truly working in our current political climate. The house of representatives currently divided at 240 Republicans to 194 Democrats and 1 independent. This clear divide has been seen in the inability to pass legislation and the clear lack of partisanship within the house.

Factors that have contributed to the legislative gridlock and lack of political compromise characteristic of most congressional sessions over the past decade include blind partisanship, mean-spiritedness and finally scandals Congress has been involved in. in relation to blind partisanship, Congress is seen as polarized based on party lines with both parties moving away from the unifying center. Statistics have shown the ideological gap between the republicans and democrats is as its widest. The two appear to vote in opposite directions in favor of their parties without giving thought to the wishes of Americans, which also contributes to the aspect of mean-spiritedness. The scandals of Congress have been well known to contribute towards the division that has developed among Americans. An instance is when is where 47% of Americans supported McCain’s republican’s ideology on the war against Iraq compared to the 45% who supported Barrack’s democratic ideology on the same.

Whenever there is a divide in houses, it makes deal-making almost impossible, and can even lead to gridlock. When parties are in a gridlock, it means that nothing is getting done because votes are evenly dived between both majority parties (Theriault). Building large majorities becomes harder when electoral and policy interests of Congress are going in different directions. Polarization often shifts the balance of the powers among our national institutions at the cost of the Congress. And often, judges and executives act irrationally and make decisions without consulting the legislative bodies for their input, basing their decisions solely on party affiliation. A recent example of how polarization has affected the United States was during the government shutdown. The shutdown was caused by dissatisfaction among judges and other elected officials in the Congress, which caused wide spread political fallout among the Republican Party. Republicans were unsatisfied with Congress, elected officials, and the workings of the political system. Polarization in Congress has gone to such extremes that the Republican Party chose to completely shut down in order to get what they wanted out of the Democratic Party. The fact that Democrats and Republicans could not come up with some sort of compromise that would be beneficial towards both Parties is very concerning, and it lets us know that there might be a little too much partisanship among both parties and not enough work

I disagree with the statement. America needs a strong government. The people need to be protected by evils outside this country and to keep the American people happy and efficient. The president does have powers to make the government powerful and I think the president should. The people need to have the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and to have to have the pursuit of happiness.